It's More Than Coffee (Always)
by adupre47
Summary: When Detective Kate Beckett catches a case with an interesting location, she gets more than she bargained for. This is a different take on Castle and Beckett's whole relationship from the beginning. This begins when they first meet.
1. Chapter 1

It started out just like any other day in the hustle and bustle of New York City for homicide detective Kate Beckett. She was already up before the alarm even went off and dressed, her father's watch strapped to her wrist and her mother's ring around her neck on a think silver chain.

Making her way to her small kitchen space, Kate passes her enormous bookshelf filled with novels of all kinds, some holding more meaning than others. Once in the kitchen, she busies herself with making coffee, the decent kind. The vile liquid at the precinct was nowhere near what coffee should taste like. Of course, in dire situations when Kate had to spend her nights shoveling paperwork, the "coffee" was good enough to choke down and keep her focused. However, if it was avoidable, Kate would make her own and make it last as long as possible. After pouring her own brew into a stainless steel coffee mug, Beckett grabbed her blazer off the coat hook and was out the door.

As usual, Detective Beckett was the first to enter the bullpen, her desk welcoming her with even more paperwork. If someone would have told her fifteen years ago that she would be filing paperwork on a drug deal gone wrong, Katherine Houghton Beckett would have thought you were crazy.

At the age of fifteen, Kate had no idea where he life was really headed but she knew she was smart enough to get into a good college. She didn't know what career would really suit her, but she still wanted to make her parents proud. Of course this wasn't an easy thing to see in Kate at the time, as most of her decisions ended in her mother Johanna saying, "I told you so." Kate at the time hated hearing it, but now what she wouldn't give to hear from her mother again.

When Kate was eighteen, right around Christmas time, the whole Beckett family planned on going out for diner. Katie was in from Stanford and the small family needed some catching up to do. Jim, Kate's father, and Kate arrived at the restaurant a tad bit early. They waited patiently for a while and Johanna never showed. Jim and Kate figured she must have forgotten or gotten tied up at work somehow. However, upon returning home a detective was waiting for them.

Johanna Beckett was stabbed and killed in an alleyway. She bled out in a pile of garbage, all alone. Time after that seemed like a haze to Kate. Her father turned to the bottle and went to a dark place that Kate prayed he would never return to. She remembered the initial sadness and hurt of it all, but there was something else amongst all this. A certain clarity. Kate Beckett would find justice for her mother's murder. She dropped out of college and joined the police academy.

Her usual wild outings with friends stopped along with much of any other social interaction. She instead spent her time going through her mother's things trying to find some connection to her even though she was long gone. Amongst these things, she held two of them most dear. The first was the ring she now wears around her neck. The second was her mother's book collection, mostly mystery-crime novels. A majority of them were Richard Castle novels. In hopes of connecting with her mom, she read each of them cover to cover and became a fan herself.

However, it was still no distraction. Her life revolved around solving her mother's case to the point where it changed her, defined her. With Jim absent from her life at the bottom of the bottle, Kate was driven and made detective faster than any other woman in the history of the NYPD.

Once there, Beckett had here fair share of embarrassing moments, mainly being caught by the Captain when she was looking at her mother's case when she had not yet earned the rank to do so. However, Captain Roy Montgomery saw the potential she had and assigned her to a team that helped her to excel in her work.

Javier Esposito had seen a lot before ever going to the 54th precinct. As a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, Espo had been through reckless missions and seen a lot of death. Upon coming to the NYPD, he suffered from PTSD but managed to beat the disorder himself. He lost a partner at the 54th precinct and shortly after this he was directed to the 12th. There, he became a homicide detective.

Beckett and Espo hit it off immediately. Espo knew that there was some deep drive to Beckett's work, but he knew better than to pry about it. He made jokes when he could, but never questioned Beckett about her past. She felt like a big brother was watching over her at all times, which was not really a bad thing.

Then came Kevin Ryan from narcotics. He was a cute little guy, but he looked nervous all the time and never really sure of himself. Beckett and Espo gave him hell for a while but in no time at all were they a small little precinct family.

However, Kate constantly reminded herself to not get too close… They may end up dead in an alley too. She never let anyone in anymore, not even her best girlfriend the M.E., Lanie Parish. The thought of going through all of that pain again…

Morbid thoughts like these ran through Beckett's mind on a daily basis. Her guard was up at all times, and with every case she caught, she worked tirelessly to get the victim justice. She couldn't find it for her mother so she would find it for others.

Kate spent endless hours researching, studying, and tearing apart her mother's case. Many meals were left uneaten and many hours were spent awake in a caffeine haze reading files. There was no end to the case. No leads. No suspects. Hell it wasn't even Kate's case…

When too much time had passed and the real investigation team found no other leads, Beckett had to take a step back. It wasn't easy but with time Beckett found her way out of the rabbit hole she had fallen so deeply into. Johanna Beckett's murder was claimed an act of gang violence.

And now at her desk, Kate began to sift through all of the documents laid out before her. She was close to halfway through the stack when her phone rang.

"Beckett."

"Yo Beckett we got a fresh one." Esposito began to fill her in on the location, which left Beckett stunned. This would be no ordinary case.


	2. Chapter 2- Of All Places and People

**First off thanks to all who have read or followed this story! The amount of views has blown me away! I'm very new to all this and any reviews are welcome!**

**Disclaimer: Castle is not mine. Just the idea of the fanfic is.**

"You sure, Espo?" Kate asks quizzically. There was a slight chuckle from the other end of the line.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Pretty messed up, huh?"

"Alright, I'm leaving right now. I'll see you in a few." Kate hung up and grabbed her blazer.

After parking her car, Detective Beckett approached the scene quickly. The press was already there smarming the whole area. A few rushed to Kate, asking for details concerning the murder. Beckett only replied with, "No comment" and surged forward.

Before entering the scene, she noticed a particularly thick crowd of the media swarming around a central point. Out of curiosity, Kate strode to the crowd wondering what was causing such a ruckus aside from the obvious crime scene. Beckett was just outside the cluster of people when a break in the crowded circle formed. Out stormed a tiny blonde woman, chasing after a uniform. The uniform turned sharply on the woman.

"I'm sorry Ms. Cowell, but Mr. Castle will not be signing books here today. Yes, I do realize that this is an inconvenience for you and Mr. Castle, but there has been a crime committed here."

"Well, I don't see why you just cant clean this up as be on your merry way. Mr. Castle's new book is being released in less that a week. This was supposed to be a special event for those privileged enough to afford this exclusive early signing and release."

At this point, Beckett realized exactly what was happening. She checked the date on her watch and sure enough. Flyers had been posted all throughout the city in every coffee shop and book store about this event. Kate even _wanted_ to come but there was no way that she'd miss work nor did she have the money to afford such a thing.

Just then a handsome, tall man appeared behind Ms. Cowell. Wearing sunglasses, a blue pinstripe button down shirt, a dark navy coat, and dark slacks, Richard Castle asked the uniform, "What kind of crime?"

Beckett's ears perked at this. She was quite surprised that Mr. Castle was more interested in the situation at hand rather than being upset about his book signing. Well, who was she kidding, he's a _crime novelist_… Of course he's interested.

Still, crime scenes were normally drab as they should be. Death is not a laughing matter and Kate took her job very seriously. But today, something was different. Normally, she would have left the uniform to handle the situation, but this was Richard freaking Castle!

"It was a murder, Mr. Castle. I'm Detective Kate Beckett with the NYPD. We are very sorry to inconvenience you like this, however someone did lose his or her life today and it is our job to catch the guy who did it. So if you don't mind, please leave us to our jobs." Kate was surprised at how professional she sounded. On the inside, she was like a tween at a Justin Bieber concert on total fangirl mode.

"Ah, yes of course. We're sorry as well, right Gina? Come on lets go put out a notice for all those who planned to attend." He smiled a hundred-watt smile and pulled Gina away leading her to the limo that was now visible to the diminishing crowd.

Kate began to make her way to the actual crime scene when she felt a hand on her shoulder. What surprised her more was whom the hand belonged to.

"I'm really sorry about Gina. She can be a real snob about these things sometimes, and you know other things, which is why we divorced and…"He trailed on about something but Kate was unable to hear what exactly they were.

"Mr. Castle, its fine. Now I have a job to do." She really didn't want to be this short to her favorite author, but she was not fixing to start having a deep conversation about his writing in the workplace. _Stay professional,_ she thought to herself. She began to walk off again but she felt him snag her elbow again.

"Wait, how was the victim killed? And who was it? When was he or she killed?"

"Umm, I ready don't know because I haven't even made it in actual building yet?" Seriously? This is a classified NYPD investigation. Kate Beckett was not going to start spilling details about this case to some bystander, even if it was Richard Castle. Or if she even knew the answers to his questions.

"Oh, well do you think I could come and take a peek? I'm good friends with the-"

"No! I will not have an untrained citizen waltz in a ruin my crime scene. I'm sorry Mr. Castle, but I really must get to my team. They are waiting on me." The nerve…Kate was working hard to remain professional now.

"Well, I'm not really untrained. I'm a bestselling crime-novelist and I've done my fair share of research on these things. Are you familiar with my books?"

"Well, yes of course I've read all-, I think I've seen a few flyers and such around. And I read one of your books, I think… maybe…" Kate was not fixing to give this guy any leverage on her. He was enough to handle as it was without him being aware of the fact that she was in fact a fan. The cracks in her wall were beginning to grow deeper though. _Keep it together, Kate._

"Oh well, you should know then that I won't do anything you mess with the crime scene. In fact, my writer insights might just help you solve this case." Oh, he so turned the charm on then. And Kate _almost _fell for it.

"Excuse me? Your "writer" insights? What are you going to do, charm a confession out of our suspect?" She went out on a limb on that one, operation under the assumption that they did indeed have a suspect.

"You never know Detective. And I'm just making sure I'm getting this straight for the record here, but do you think that I am in fact charming? I mean your last little comment there…" He moved closer to her dropping his sunglasses a little down on his nose revealing a pair of striking green eyes. A playful grin danced at the corners of his mouth. Kate felt momentarily flustered then snapped out of it. Normally this little flirtatious act would have women all over him, but not Kate Beckett.

"Keep dreaming. Goodbye Mr. Castle. And don't think about sneaking into the scene. I will have my team notified" She gave him a tight grin and walked away leaving him in absolute astonishment.

Richard Castle was left with the vision of the hard-boiled detective walking away from him, her long curly brunette hair bouncing behind her. For once, the bestselling writer was at a lost for words.

**So what do you guys think? Sorry for any grammatical errors! Please leave a review! **


	3. Chapter 3- Lost for Words

**Thanks to all you guys who have read or followed this story thus far! I can't wait to release new chapters! Thanks for the reviews and many more would be appreciated. This is my first time writing so bear with me through my grammatical errors! **

**This is all taking place around 2008, but some of the character ages differ from those on the show. Kate is early thirties and Castle is around the same. However, Alexis is only 6 or 7 at this time. **

**Disclaimer: Castle is not mine.**

After shaking off the egotistical writer, Beckett entered the grand building otherwise known as The New York City Public Library. She ducked under the yellow tape and began to take in the scene. Many people were crowded around one central location in the far right corner of the spacious library. She guessed the body would be propped against the stairs from the arrangement of those gathered around.

He was cocky. Displaying his work like this in such a public place? Definitely proud of his work and quite confident that he could hide his evidence. But the weird only began there.

As Beckett approached the body, she noticed something terribly grotesque about it. It was a young female, it appeared, Caucasian. However this trait was hard to distinguish through all the words scribbled on her entire body. She only had a white bra and panties on, leaving the rest of her body a canvas for the killer's (presumably) handwriting. The messy, black scrawl stood out against the corpse's pale, almost translucent, skin. The only contrast in color was the dark crimson color of blood that dripped from her chest. It appeared that she was stabbed right in the heart.

Kate took a step back and looked for Detectives Esposito and Ryan. The CSU team was already swarming the area and several uniforms stood around the scene. Cameras flashed capturing various items of evidence. Men and women moved about dusting things, pulling prints, and bagging evidence. Through the swarm of Espo spotted Beckett and strode toward her quickly.

Kate's encounter with Rick had put her in seriously pissed off mood. She knew it seemed self-centered to get so worked up about such a minor thing in comparison to the Jane Doe in the corner. Still, she felt it and she couldn't help it.

"Hey, great way to start of the morning, huh?" Espo greeted her.

"You don't even know the half of it. Where's Ryan?"

"He was just right behind me… I could have sworn…"

"It's alright. I'll just fill him in once he joins us. What have we got?" Beckett nodded over to the body.

"Jane Doe, called in by a janitor early this morning around seven-ish. He says he had his ear buds in and never heard any screams or distrurbances like that. He was cleaning the upper level when he came down and found our vic. He was the only one here that he was aware of. I already have his complete statement."

"Alright then. We'll need to canvass, see what comes up. I'm gonna go talk to Lanie and see what she's got." Just then Ryan came bounding up to them smiling like kid on Christmas morning.

"Bro, did you win the lottery or something?"

Beckett looks down at what Ryan is holding. She should have known.

"Oh you have got to be kidding." She says to no one in particular but she knows what's going to happen next. Espo turned to look at her and caught her mid eye roll.

"And who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?"

Beckett opened up her mouth to answer but was cut short by Captain Montgomery striding toward them with someone trailing behind him, none other than Mr. Castle.

"Detectives Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito! Here's someone I'd like you to meet. He's a good old friend of mine. This is Mr. Richard Castle. Rick this is Kate Beckett. She's the youngest woman in the history of the NYPD to make detective, and has the top case closure rate at our precinct. Then we have Javier Esposito our ex military operative, and of course Kevin Ryan."

Castle's eyes gleamed with delight upon looking at Detective Beckett as if to rub in his reappearance.

"Oh Mr. Castle and I have already met." Kate tries to put it as smugly as she can to let him know she's not up for games.

Castle began to shake hands with Espo and Ryan, who looked like he was going to start crying from excitement.

"Mr. Castle thank you so much for donating these advanced signed copies to the whole precinct. I'm a huge fan." Kevin was visibly shaking now.

"Oh it's my pleasure, what with Captain Montgomery's favor here." His eyes flashed immediately to Kate. _I told you so._

Kate's mouth fell slightly open. There's no way Captain Montgomery would go for this, could there? Suddenly she was aware of her low-hanging jaw and snapped it shut.

"I, um- excuse me, what favor?" Kate's eyes danced from Castle to the Captain.

"Oh well my old pal Ricky here just wanted some hands on experience out at a real crime scene. And-" Before he could finish, Beckett interrupted.

"Captain, can I have a word please, Sir?" She barely got the words out of her mouth.

"Yes, sure Detective." The Captain looked at her quizzically. They strode off a few feet, just enough to be out of hearing distance.

"Is there a problem here, Detective?"

"Sir, do you really think that's it's a good idea to have an untrained civilian walking around our crime scene? He has no training, and what if he compromises evidence?"

"Ricky? No, no not Rick. He's a crime novelist Detective. He knows most of standard procedure like he must have gloves on at the scene. Not to mention I trust the guy and he's pretty creative. You never know what a fresh set of eyes might bring. Plus he just needs some new material for his books."

"Sir, with all do respect, I really don't see how an actually crime scene can serve as inspiration for him. This is someone's tragedy and he wants to turn it into his own entertainment?" She knew it wasn't really what he was doing or anything of that sort, but it was her only card left to play to get him out.

"Kate, it's not like that. He needs experience like getting the slang right and that kind of thing. You of all people should know that. I was under the impression that you were a fan."

"Yes Sir, but he doesn't need to know that." Kate finally admitted to defeat. She really wasn't going to lose him.

"Right, of course. And Detective lighten up a bit. He could really help us here, and you never know. He might just surprise you." The Captain winked and walked away.

**Thoughts? Please leave a review and sorry for any grammatical errors!**


	4. Chapter 4- Annoyance

**Firstly, thank you all so much for over 850 views! That number is extremely encouraging along with the reviews! I hope you continue to enjoy what I dish out. I will do my best to keep updating frequently however tomorrow is Monday and this week will have a heavy test load. **

**As always Castle is not mine and please leave a review!**

Well that was that. Kate stayed back for a moment trying to determine the best way to handle the whole situation with logic.

_Come on Kate, it's just one case. Just get through it. He'll be a pain in the ass, but you hunt down killers for a living. I'm sure you can handle this jackass._

With a new resolve, Detective Beckett strode back to the three men. Castle seemed to be getting along well with Ryan but Espo wasn't impressed. He humored Castle, but he wasn't head over heals about him, like Ryan.

"Yo, Beckett everything cool with the Captain?" Espo wanted out of their little pow-wow and resorted to shifting the attention to Beckett.

"Oh yes, everything is fine." Kate threw a quick glance at Castle hoping he got the message. _Just this once you win._ "I'm going to go check in with Lanie, as I was saying before Mr. Castle here joined us."

"Oh great. Ryan and me will go start canvassing." Espo grabbed Ryan and began to walk away quickly. He wanted out of this just as bad as Beckett.

"Well then I guess it's just you and me then, huh, partner?" Castle stepped a bit closer to Kate.

"Okay, just so this is all nice and clear for you here writer-boy, we are not partners. In fact, I don't know what you are here really, but I do know that if you compromise any evidence, you will be on my list of people who make my life harder. And if there is one place you do not want to be, Mr. Castle, it is that list. Got it?"

Before Castle could make a smart-ass remark, Beckett had already turned on her heels and was headed for the back corner near the stairs. He scrambled to catch up to her, but fell short, only reaching her side when she was already with Lanie.

"Hey Lanie, what do we have?"

"Well, it looks like you have a handsome writer following you around. Mr. Castle, I'm Lanie Parish, the M.E." Lanie extended her gloved hand to the writer with a smile. Beckett shot her a "not-now-we-don't-like-him" look and Lanie pursed her lips.

"Ah a pleasure to meet you Dr. Parish. I find myself to be a bit more ruggedly-handsome, though, don't you find?" Beckett wondered just how self-centered one person could be. A look of realization dawned on Lanie's face as she realized what Beckett's look meant.

"Well, the only real thing that I have found is that this is a female, early twenties with a pretty obvious cause of death being the stab wound to her chest. As you know though, I can't give you any definite details until I get her back to the lab."

"Was she killed here? I mean there's blood on her chest, but not enough to look like she bled out here, right?" Kate knelt down next to Lanie for closer inspection.

"You're getting good at this girl. I'd put time of death at about seven or eight hours ago judging from body temp. Also, I'm thinking that the murder weapon was something like a dagger. I can give you more specifics after some more in depth examination."

"Right what exactly is written all over her body? Are those all 47's?"

"Appears so." Lanie pointed to the array of 47's scrawled across the woman's body.

"Why would a killer want to write 47 all over their victim's body?" Beckett whispered this, talking to no one specifically.

"Maybe he's a part of a secret doomsday society that has a secret code to day of the apocalypse, and he had to kill her because she knew too much. Think of it as a public warning maybe." Castle, all too seriously, rattled off his theory while, both Beckett and Lanie, stared at him in disbelief. _How can someone come up with this and honestly keep a straight face?_

"I will think of it as a planned, carefully executed murder until more information is presented, and I suggest you do the same as well, Mr. Castle." Beckett gave him the same tight grin as earlier trying not to entertain any crazy theories of his. She stood up, thanked Lanie, and strode away from the body leaving Lanie to do the rest of her job.

Castle followed Beckett until she stopped and turned to face him.

"I'm heading back to the precinct to do paperwork until Ryan and Espo come back from canvassing and Lanie gets an ID."

"Oh good I can ride with you. Roy said there was something I had to sign to work with you."

"Wait, you have to sign paperwork? People don't have to sign legality forms unless…" Beckett finally put the pieces together. "How long?"

"How long what?" Castle stared at her a bit lost in her train of thought.

"How long do you intend on, on doing whatever you call this deal?"

"Well, it depends on just how much I can gather. Roy said I could stay until I got what I needed." A slight spark shimmered in Castle's eye knowing this what not the answer she wanted to hear.

It took Kate a moment to grasp the concept of working with this clown everyday, indefinitely. She tried to recover from the odd silence quickly, but ended up stuttering a bit.

"Well then, let's go."

Once in the car, Beckett thought she had seen annoying before. That kid that's always crying in the doctor's office, the person in front of you at the checkout counter trying to make a return of an item that could in fact could not be returned, a person talking obnoxiously loud on their cell in the subway. But Richard Castle took annoying to a whole new level.

"What does this do?" Castle began to reach for the police scanner.

"That's a police scanner. Don't-" Before she could pull it away from him, Castle had the speaker next to his mouth with the side button pressed down.

"Breaker, breaker, we got a incident out here on the-" Beckett quickly yanked the chord down, pulling the device away from Castle's mouth. She quickly rectified the problem on the scanner and set it back down where it belonged.

"These are not toys, okay Castle? These are real pieces of equipment that actually work, so no touchy."

"Castle, I see we're getting close. So informal. I like it."

The precinct never seemed so far away.

**Thoughts? Please leave a review!**


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